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This should have been an Ancestral Profile post, but it would be the shortest one yet, because I know very little about Ann HARMES. Ann was one of my 4x great-grandparents. She married Samuel WALDER in Bolney, Sussex on the 14th November 1815.

To my knowledge they had six children, all baptised in Bolney between 1817 and 1831, including my 3x great-grandfather Edward WALDER. Then some time between that last baptism in 1831 (or possibly just before) and the 1841 census Ann died.

At least I assume that she died, she is not with her husband Samuel in 1841 and he re-married in February 1842 (in Bolney) claiming he was a widow. The problem is that I can’t find a burial record for Ann WALDER or anything like it (or HARMES) in Bolney.

I have been using indexes and transcriptions for my research, so I need to check the original records to make sure that the record hasn’t been missed. I also need to make sure that I have covered all surrounding parishes just in case.

The problem is that without knowing when she died and how old she was when she died I don’t know when she was born. She may have been about the same age as Samuel and died young, or she could have been considerably older and died at a ripe old age.

She may even have been a widow (that should be easy to check on the original parish register entry) when she married Samuel and in that case HARMES might not be her maiden name.

The good news is that there is an eligible Ann HARMES in Bolney. Michael and Hannah HARMES had at least nine children one of whom was Ann, who was baptised on the 4th March 1798 in Bolney. This would make her about a similar age as Samuel WALDER, but of course I don’t know how old Samuel’s wife was, so I am reluctant to accept this at face value without further evidence.

Further Research…

I need to double-check the Bolney parish registers, for details of Ann’s marriage and to find her burial, I really need to find an age from somewhere. I also need to pay attention to Michael and Hannah HARMES, my best bet would be to find a will that mentions the WALDER family.